Other Fan Fiction ❯ A Push in the Right Direction ❯ Chapter 9
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: MikariStar 
Miscellaneous: Other Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Drama / Fantasy / Mystery / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.23.2012 | Pages: 5 | Words: 8.4K | Visits: 258 | Status: Completed
Miscellaneous: Other Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Drama / Fantasy / Mystery / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.23.2012 | Pages: 5 | Words: 8.4K | Visits: 258 | Status: Completed
A Push in the Right Direction: Case IX
Mystery 50: Finally
"Wake up slave..."
"Hmm... cake... yum... Neuro..."
"Slave!"
Yako woke up suddenly, jumping out of her pleasant dream, and found a pair of glowing green eyes staring into hers. "Neuro, you're back to normal!" She hugged him then took a closer look at the silly sailor outfit, which had somehow stretched along with his body. She laughed before she could hold back, but stopped herself as soon as she could. "I'm glad you're back to normal."
"A grumpy old geezer, am I?" Neuro reminded Yako of what was said when he was little, revealing that he did keep his memories of that time. "I may not be a child of three hundred, unaware of how the worlds outside of his own work, but seven thousand is still young."
Instead of worrying about her possible impending doom, Yako became curious, "seven thousand? Really? I thought maybe your species aged differently so you might be a thousand or two years old, but seven thousand?"
"When you go over your first thousand it won't matter much anymore," Neuro pinched Yako's cheeks and pulled them left and right.
She tried to pry his hands off her face, "humans don't live that long."
"You'll live for as long as I decide, it's an order from your master. Besides, you're my property forever, remember, Puzzle? You've caused so much trouble and I've been too merciful with you."
"But you're normal, that means you came to terms with it, I mean accepted it, you, I... um... well..." Yako felt her face turn scarlet, not only because of the implications of Neuro being back to normal, meaning he did love her and somehow came to terms with it pushing aside any denial he might have held on to, but also because of his proximity, laying on top of her.
"You'll have to be punished for all the trouble you caused and I thought of a way..."
xoxox xox xoxox
Yako woke up for the second time that day. She had dozed off, feeling exhausted after... Her face turned bright red as she looked to her side to find Neuro staring at her, green eyes glowing mischievously. For a second she had thought it was all a dream. Strangely enough, nothing hurt, she thought she might be in pain for a while, she was sure Neuro scratched her and bit her, among other things, but upon checking her body, Yako found she had no wounds or scars.
"Such an inconvenience, all the marks went away," Neuro traced her face with his finger, which was not a claw, all the way down her neck and chest. "I suppose I forgot to tell you that if we mate I share my energy with you and that heals and rejuvenates your pathetic form. You'll return to whatever age is the human equivalent to mine in the same state of health I'm in."
Yako blushed deeper, if that was even possible. "Then we really will be together for a long time..." she smiled.
xoxox xox xoxox
Three days later, on the roof of the building where the detective office was located, Godai enjoyed a cold beer in the middle of the afternoon. Akane was perched on his shoulder, after he had insisted that she should also take advantage of Neuro's absence and relax. "It looks like today is another calm day, Akane. I don't know where those two have gone, but it sure is quiet around here. Maybe they went on a romantic get away together or something like that."
"Slave number two!" The door that led to the stairs was thrown open and there stood Neuro, "why are you up here slacking off and encouraging Akane to participate in your ungrateful ways?"
"You're back!" Godai startled, he jumped to his feet and hurried back to the office, mostly curious to know what the sudden absence had been about.
At the office, Yako was cleaning up, there were some drawings on the walls that she herself had made when she was turned into a child and no one had bothered to finish cleaning, though she had started on several occasions, only to be interrupted for various reasons. "Good afternoon Godai and Akane!" Yako greeted cheerfully.
"Hi..." Godai curiously looked at Yako; there was something different about her, even if she looked the same. She appeared more radiant and happy than she had been in a long time. Akane signaled, pointing at the deep violet feather Yako wore on her hair clip, which prompted Godai to comment, "nice feather."
Yako turned her attention towards the wall she was cleaning, her face turning red as she muttered, "Neuro gave it to me." After she asked, begged and finally persuaded him to give her a feather. She had always thought they were pretty and she enjoyed convincing Neuro to give it to her.
Deciding that he did not want to know what had happened after all, Godai concluded it was best to drop the subject with a neutral, "that's nice," and leave it at that. Just in case, he quickly escaped a situation that could potentially bring too much information, should Neuro decide that it was an amusing torture, "I'm going out to hand out fliers now!"
xoxox xox xoxox
Later, Godai was still out and Yako was cleaning. She had finished cleaning the doodles off the walls and was now dusting the shelves, a broom leaning against the wall near by. Suddenly, Neuro picked her up, placed her sitting on Troy and put the broom into her hand, held up at an angle. He took the feather duster and pretended to clean the furniture on time for a reporter to barge in to interview the great detective.
"Oh my," the reporter spoke with disapproval; "it looks like it was true what they say about you being terribly rough with your assistant, making him clean the office like that and hitting him with a broom."
Yako noticed how compromising the situation looked; Neuro must have heard the footsteps getting closer and set this up to annoy Yako. "I wasn't-" the broom slipped out of Yako's grasp, bounced off Neuro's head and fell on the floor next to him.
Neuro made a sad face, "please stop hitting me sensei, I promise to try harder and leave the office spotless."
Yako laughed nervously and tried to change the subject before Neuro made things worse. "How may I help you?"
"Poor man..." the reporter shook her head. "Did you say something, detective? Ah, never mind, I'm here to interview you and I'll still do it despite your cruelty to your unfortunate assistant."
xoxox xox xoxox
Shortly after the interview was done, Godai returned, having purposely taken his time handing out fliers. "Looks like I might have found some customers, it's becoming easier. I wrote down their contact information and what they wanted to hire you for here." Lately Godai had really been trying to help out, having become accustomed to his life as slave number two.
Neuro snatched away the paper and pushed Godai out, "good job slave number two, you're not so stupid after all. Out with you now, your duties are completed for today." Neuro closed the door on Godai's face, only to open it again a few seconds later, "take your girlfriend with you," he handed Akane over to Godai and before the yakuza could protest, once again, the door was closed on his face.
"Why did you do that?" Yako observed Neuro curiously as he closed the windows and curtains, then locked and bolted the door. "Neuro?"
"So I can punish you again."
xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox
Mystery 51: Evidence
Yako gently ran her hands through the claw marks on Troy. "If the one who made Troy sees this..." It's not like she expected Neuro to be gentle, but he had to learn to stop breaking furniture.
"You do have good ideas now and then, top slug," Neuro immediately called with the pretence that his desk needing maintenance.
Yako sighed, "I should have kept my big mouth shut."
xoxox xox xoxox
Several hours later at Yako's apartment, she had a good meal and a nice relaxing shower. Neuro had disappeared around the time food consumed her attention as it was consumed by her. She quickly organized her bedroom, picking up her Neuro plushie from the floor where it had been tossed out of the way earlier. She placed it on her desk, she would sleep with it if not for the fact that she feared she would chew it up while dreaming of something delicious, it had turned out cute and she didn't want to ruin it.
While fixing the sheets that had been left tangled up before, she noticed that they were torn to pieces, something that had escaped her attention earlier, as her mind was occupied in other things. She threw away the unfixable shreds of fabric, examining the holes and rips on the mattress with a sigh and resolving for simply turning it over and covering it with thick sheets. She couldn't afford to buy new furniture every time... she blushed, the blood rushing to her face at the thought.
"What are you doing, slave?"
Yako jumped in surprise and looked up at the ceiling; she should have expected Neuro to be there. "I'm trying to fix the bed so I can sleep on it, you tore it apart..."
"Don't say it like it's my fault alone when you share the blame," Neuro grinned mischievously.
"That's not... I didn't!" Yako pouted, it was simply impossible to argue with Neuro and besides, he sort of had a point, in a way. She picked up her tortured pillow, she couldn't use that anymore, "I really liked this pillow; it reminded me of a marshmallow."
"Is that why you bit it?"
"I did not!" Yako paused, she had assumed all the destruction was to be blamed on Neuro; though she did play a certain key role in it she had thought her participation was strictly indirect. What had happened to the pillow? Ah, yes, she remembered it clearly now. "I only bit it because you shoved it in my face and tried to suffocate me with it!" Yako tossed the pillow away and rummaged through her closet for a spare.
"How disappointing, I finally get you to obediently call me master and seconds later you rebel and attack," Neuro hopped down from the ceiling. "You bit me, remember? The pillow incident was in self defense, are you sure you weren't trying to eat me? You bit me at the office too, except I didn't have a pillow to shove at you then," nonetheless he did bang her head against the polished surface of Troy. Yako felt every drop of blood she had in her entire body rush to her face, she couldn't deny Neuro's claims. "You're not a submissive slave at all, your master will have to teach you some respect..."
xoxox xox xoxox
It was a brand new day, the sun was shining, the city was buzzing with activity, and Yako was merrily walking down the street back to the office after having purchased some mid-morning snacks. The office would look empty without Troy until the desk was returned. The furniture designer who made Troy with such care nearly had a heart attack when he saw the state it, or she as he insisted on calling the desk, was in. He took Troy back to his shop for repairs, dramatically crying the whole way.
As expected, Yako got blamed for everything. The furniture designer went as far as saying he pitied Neuro, having to put up with the abusive detective and theorizing the reason he always wore that suit was to hide the multiple bandaged injuries he must have all over his body, including the recent stab wounds, which was what the claw marks on Troy were interpreted to be.
People had theorized about the detective and her assistant being lovers long before they even became a couple. They secretly pitied poor Neuro, though they also admired his courage and endurance, imagining Yako to be a merciless sadist. Embarrassed as she was, Yako had given up on trying to clear up the rumors, denial only made them stronger. Instead she just ignored the odd looks and suspicious whispers, or at least she tried to.
However, Yako could not ignore the strange girl who was leaning close to her and smelling her as she walked down the street. "Excuse me?"
"You're excused," the girl replied, talking another sniff, as if to confirm beyond a doubt that the scent was what she thought it was. Her hair was unusually colored, striped in dark purple-black and blond, her eyes a dull gray, darker in the center, like a pair of black holes. "I'm sure of it; the fact that you're wearing his feather on that silly hair clip of yours is no mere coincidence. I can smell it; it has finally happened, I was expecting it. I knew from the day my brother went off to the human world that he would end up with a human mate. I never did understand his fascination with such weak and hideous creatures, but he is an idiot."
Yako looked at her in puzzlement, "you're taking about Neuro?"
"Who else, he's the only sibling I have, and a useless one at that. When we were little he was always trying to get rid of me, I guess he was mad because I was taller, despite being younger. Sure he grew taller than me eventually, but it drove him insane as a child to be so small, he would snap at anyone who called him little," she had a high pitched mocking laugh. Suddenly, she made a dramatic pause and introduced herself, "I am the one and only Nera Nogami! Now unworthy sister-in-law, make yourself useful and take me to see my stupid brother."
xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox
Mystery 52: Visitors
The door to the detective office was noisily thrown open, startling Godai, who peeked from behind the newspaper, "a client?"
"Are you my brother's pet? Honestly, Neuro has such bad taste," Nera grabbed Godai's head with her clawed hand and dragged him out, returning her hand to a human appearance afterwards. "Shoo, ugly one, shoo, I must try to make a passable sister-in-law out of this even uglier creature." Before Godai could protest, the door was closed on his face.
"It seems Neuro went out somewhere," Yako observed, it was a fine time he picked to disappear. "Do you know where he went Akane?"
"Stop talking to the corpse and pay attention," Nera insisted, looking at Yako with disapproval, yet at the same time a certain inexplicable fondness. "Before my brother left our world, he collected 777 special tools and took most of them with him. However, he left this with me, claiming that he had no use for it. He also poked fun at me saying I really needed it, but it's clear his mate is the one that needs it the most." Nera held up a tube of lipstick, "evil makeup," she handed it to Yako.
"You want me to wear this? Doesn't it have some kind of crazy side effect?" Yako wasn't too trusting of any of the evil tools, though some of them actually did what they were supposed to do without consequences, but those were rare.
"Unfortunately no," Nera's sincere disappointment made Yako believe there really was no danger involved. "Now put it on and say 'bird demon make-up'. Say it or I'll have to force you to."
Yako laughed nervously. When she wanted some 'me time' Neuro was always there, popping out of a dark corner, sneaking up behind her, hanging from the ceiling, or making an equally unexpected, yet somehow predictable, entrance. Now that she needed him there, he was gone, off to a place unknown to Yako. "Okay..." Yako gulped and removed the tube's cap, twisting the end to push up the blood red lipstick bar. She looked at Nera, the shades of gray in her black hole eyes swirled with impatience. "Here goes..." Yako took a deep breath, "bird demon make-up!" Putting on the lipstick and shouting such a silly phrase made her feel like one of those magical girls on TV. Shining swirls of color surrounded her as she blinked in surprise and spun around, taking a new form.
The door was thrown open again and Neuro entered the office. "Sister, what an unexpected surprise and you've even brought a friend."
Nera didn't see or hear Neuro, she was staring at Yako's new form in surprise and pointing at her; then suddenly she wailed, "it's not fair," and cried uncontrollably.
Yako felt very odd. She touched her head to find that it was much bigger than it used to be, and very long. She held her hands in front of her face and saw clawed wings with a golden ring around each claw finger. She was covered in light pink feathers and was wearing the silliest hot pink outfit, a little too tight for her liking, with a flowing white sash around her waist. She noted that she had a feathery pink tail, and her feet were a bird's claws matching the claws in her hands and scratching the floor where she stood. She examined her large beak again, multiple large fangs sticking out from it.
Neuro was looking at her closely, "Yako?" He took a good look and perceived in her familiar scent, "it is you; you're really the top slug now!" He laughed at her distress.
"Mirror!" Yako rushed to her desk, which was next to the empty space where Troy would go when it, or she, was returned. She bent down to look at the open drawer's contents and stabbed her beak into the surface of the desk, causing the desk to be broken into two halves, the miraculously undamaged drawer falling to the floor between them. Not quite used to her large head, Yako turned it over to the side as she bent over to pick up the mirror between her clawed fingers, causing it to shatter.
"That's seven years of bad luck, clumsy worm," Neuro went over to Akane's desk, borrowing her mirror, the one Yako would always hold up for Akane to see herself after she had been brushed. "Take a look." Yako approached, but Neuro extended his arm, holding her back so she wouldn't peck the mirror and break it, since her head was a lot longer now and she was not used to it.
"It was the evil make-up! How do I change back? Is taking it off enough?" Yako lifted her claw wing hand to wipe off the lipstick, but Neuro stopped her.
"Leave it on for a while longer," he insisted.
Yako's worry faded, her guess about how to change back must have been right. If she could return to normal without consequences then this didn't seem so bad. "Just for a little while."
As Nera kept complaining about how unfair the world was and crying dramatically for reasons still unknown, Neuro took some time to point and laugh at his sister. Yako attempted to console her sister-in-law, only to be pushed away by both Nera, who didn't want her pity, and Neuro, who didn't think Nera deserved any compassion.
Thus Yako went over to the refrigerator she now kept in the office, since she spent a lot more time there as a fulltime detective, and started going through her stash of emergency snacks. She took an entire cake and put it easily inside her large beak, she had never eaten a cake of that size in a single bite before. She found it to be a pleasant experience and continued stuffing her face
Yako was enjoying the food when suddenly Neuro pulled her away from the refrigerator in alarm and wiped the lipstick off her beak, ripping his sleeve on her fangs in the process. Yako changed back to normal, exactly as she was before and looked into Neuro's serious eyes. "I forbid you from disguising yourself as one of my species ever again. With a stomach like yours, it's too dangerous to allow you to have a bigger mouth."
Yako pouted, "but I was enjoying it!"
"Absolutely not!" Neuro took away the evil make-up and put it in his pocket. "Nera, stop crying, it's not fair that only Yako gets to make you cry. I flew out to get a surprise to upset you, but I can't make you cry if you're already crying!"
Nera stopped crying and sniffled indignantly. "I can't believe this, evil make-up only changes certain aspects of people, but the basics remain, her eye and hair colors for example were the same. As for the rest, it is as it would have been if she had been born of our kind and I just can't believe it; such an enormous beak for such a worthless creature and with huge fangs too!"
"Ah yes, you grew up pretty quickly, but stopped relatively early so you started as the biggest and ended up as the smallest," Neuro morphed his head to his true form and stuck out his tongue at Nera.
"Yako's fangs would have been bigger than yours!" Nera argued.
"Please get along you two!" Yako pleaded.
"Yeah, Neuro, be nice to me because I'll be staying with you for a while," Nera smiled mischievously, her jealousy of Yako's large beak was forgotten in an instant at the pleasant thought of tormenting her brother.
"How nice, I'm sure we can find some room for you, even if we have other visitors staying over too," Neuro sneezed as Angelus and Yukari entered the office on cue.
"Hi!" Yukari cheerfully exclaimed. "Neuro invited Angie and me to Japan!"
Angelus bowed, "we thank you for your kind invitation Neuro; we will try to be good house guests."
Nera shrieked at the top of her lungs and snatched the mirror away from Neuro, screaming at her reflection and throwing it at Angelus, who fortunately caught it. "I'm allergic to angels!" Unlike Neuro, Nera did not sneeze; instead she became covered in multicolored spots that looked like rainbow chickenpox. "Forget the visit, I'm out of here, I'm going home!" Nera left in a hurry.
"I hope you know that was just an act," Neuro warned Angelus with a sneeze after Nera had left.
"Yes, I understand," Angelus assured.
"But I do have my own house here in Japan so Angie and I can stay for a visit after all!" Yukari cheered, "we're going to have so much fun!"
xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox
Mystery 53: Sibling Rivalry
When Troy was returned to the office, Yako wasn't there, she was late, very late, and Neuro didn't like it. He might have to turn her into a chair for a while, or use his new favorite method of punishment, though she didn't seem to be particularly distressed by it. He would think of something to do, as soon as Yako came through that door, Neuro was certain his sadistic inspiration would kick in the second he saw her face. Yet time passed and Yako did not arrive.
Akane searched the internet for mysteries quietly and Godai was out promoting the office. There was suddenly a knock on the door and Neuro could feel his allergy starting. "You don't have to knock, Angie darling, just open it," Yukari opened the door, entering the office followed by Angelus, who brought forth a sneezing fit from Neuro.
"Please forgive me for the inconvenience," Angelus apologized.
Before Neuro could recover from his sneezes, Yukari spoke again, "it's not your fault Angie." Then she looked at Neuro and held up a flier, "look at this!"
Neuro examined the flier with moderate curiosity. It was an advertisement for a pet show, which would feature three main events, though the flier did not specify what the events would be. It mentioned that each contestant could enter up to two pets, each one participating in the elimination rounds, the first two events, with the top contestants making it to the final round where the winner would be decided. "Are you going to enter the feather duster as your pet? Did you come here to borrow slave number one as your second pet?"
"That might not be too far from the truth," Yukari grinned, making a pause to allow the information to sink in, occupying herself in twisting her long blond hair between her fingers, brown eyes shining in anticipation of the amusement the situation may bring her.
Neuro sneezed, then came to a realization, "it's a clandestine pet show and the feather duster was given the mission to stop it if there are humans involved since enslaving humans has been declared illegal."
"Correct, unless they are enslaved of their own free will, which rarely happens, but is not impossible, even if it may sound like a contradiction. I was sent to investigate and stop the event if there are humans being held captive or if humans come too close to discovering the truth of the competition, that no one is wearing a costume. Other than that, the show will be ignored if it doesn't cause too much trouble, we have no express laws about the capture of creatures not from the surface of the Earth," Angelus explained.
"Where's Yako?" Yukari asked, "I thought we might all go watch the show together, Angie is technically working, but maybe he won't have to interfere so we can all enjoy the show. Besides, even if he has to go to work, it will all be done behind the scenes so the human audience doesn't stop thinking of it as more than an odd carnival show."
With another sneeze Neuro replied, "you might just be holding the answer to your own question."
xoxox xox xoxox
"Neuro!" Yako ran to him, arms open for a hug, recognizing him immediately despite his appearance as a big purple bird. Then the chain of her collar ran out and she could go no further.
Nera smiled and waved at her brother, holding the other end of the chain, "you don't mind if I borrow your mate for a while, do you? Oh and I have your pet here too." She was in her true form, covered in red feathers, her dull gray eyes even more ominous like black holes that threatened to absorb one's very soul. Her hair was still the same, long with blond and dark purple-black stripes.
Godai was in the same condition as Yako, being held captive in the large circus tent, while the audience waited outside. He had seen a variety of creatures he thought only existed in mythology and with so many strange beings, it was hard to tell which were the masters at times. There were not only birds, but creatures similar to other animals as well.
"Slaves number one and number two, your master is very disappointed that you have gotten yourselves kidnapped so easily," Neuro glared at Nera.
Nera grinned, she had a beak full of sharp pointy teeth, though her fangs didn't stick out and it was still much smaller than Neuro's. "If you take them back now, I'm waking mom and dad and telling them all about you and your human mate!"
"See if I care, tattle tell!" Neuro countered.
"It might make a mess of history..." The warning came from a man in a black hooded coat, his face covered in shadows. He stood next to a human woman.
Nera identified the human as the same woman who was with that angel before, though she didn't feel her feathers getting itchy so the angel couldn't be near by. "Who are you?"
"Nobody..." the man replied.
Nera decided to ignore the unknown man and taunted her brother, "you're just a afraid to lose!"
"That's my property on your team, if they win, I win!" Neuro argued.
"That's not the point!" Nera pouted, "it's all about the master, not the pets and for today, I'm their master. Will you face me in this pet show or will you chicken out?"
An indignant, "hey!" was heard from a chicken creature who found the old phrase offensive, though the chicken was ignored.
"I'll take your challenge with these two humans as my pets," Neuro agreed, "Yukari and Stinky."
Godai began to protest, going on and on about ungrateful parrots, who didn't rescue those who needed to be rescued, until Yako placed a hand on his shoulder and he stopped, giving her room to tell Neuro off, since he expected her to do so. Instead Yako smiled, "if that's the way you want it, then I'll give it my all and I will claim victory for myself!"
"Are you insane?!" Godai protested.
"It's alright Godai; Neuro is here so we're safe. Let's play along; it might be fun, just like a picnic game, only it's not as good without the picnic." Yako only hoped that the competition didn't last too long, she was hungry.
"Then it's settled, you just wait Neuro, I'll finally beat you at something!" Nera declared.
"The only thing you can win is a competition for smallest beak," Neuro mocked.
Nera was fuming, "laugh while you can, but that price is as good as mine. It's a magic bottle; imagine bottling up a mystery to snack on later."
"I like to eat my mysteries right away, but I wouldn't mind keeping that bottle," Neuro thought of the possibilities, if Yako was properly trained he could send her out to bottle up a mystery on her own, while he investigated another, claiming sensei was guiding him over the phone. Then he could get twice as much food.
xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox
Mystery 54: Pet Show
The first event on the show was a battle, when Nera's turn came; she set Godai out to face a huge green goblin. "This isn't fair, I'm not even armed!" The goblin was not only three times as big as Godai, it held a large wooden club. Godai ran in circles around the arena, avoiding the swings of the club. He considered jumping out of the arena and getting himself disqualified, but he feared the consequences of that as well.
Exhausted and panicked, Godai tripped over his own feet and fell. The goblin, who was running after him, clumsily tripped over Godai, flailing its arms and tossing the club into the air as it fell with half its huge body outside of the circular arena, the club landing on its head. Godai rolled out of the way, escaping being crushed by the goblin's heavy legs. He was sore around the ribs where the goblin had tripped on him, but otherwise unharmed.
Each participant of the first round had to defeat two opponents in battle, reducing the number of participants considerably. Godai was not so lucky in his next fight. The massive black and white orc chased him right out of the arena, though it stupidly continued running after Godai, getting disqualified as well.
"You lost!" Nera yelled at Godai, who was still running for his life with the all brawn and no brains orc chasing after him, causing a commotion among the other participants, though the human witnesses laughed, thinking it was all part of the show.
In his haste, Godai found himself in the path of the goblin he had defeated before by sheer clumsy luck and the beast was angry. Godai jumped out of the way as the goblin raised the large club made out of a tree and brought it down harshly as the orc rammed right into the goblin and the two beasts knocked each other out, Godai emerging out of the ordeal unharmed. "That's it, I'm not playing anymore," his fear for Nera was lost to indignation and the courage that came as the aftermath of survival. He walked over to where Neuro was waiting and glared, blaming him for all that was wrong in the world, "I hate you." Then he sat down at the sidelines.
"Really slave number two, what are you so upset about?" Neuro innocently inquired and Godai decided not to dignify him with an answer.
Neuro didn't have time to further annoy Godai, because it was his turn to send out one of his pets to do battle. "Go Stinky, make sure you win against both your opponents or else."
The unknown man in black went into the arena, but his opponents fought dirty, sending out both the kobold and gargoyle at once, instead of one by one as it should be. The judges reasoned that, since it was required to defeat two opponents before advancing, as long as that condition was met, it didn't matter if it was done separately or at the same time, they weren't too concerned with the minor details of the rules anyway.
The kobold and gargoyle glared at each other, as if deciding that the only worthy opponent was each other. They nodded with the silent agreement of getting rid of the creature in black, which was small compared to them, then focus on fighting each other. Thus they pounded away, kicking, punching and clawing, but strangely enough, they couldn't even rip the black fabric, let alone wound him. "I would much rather not hurt you two, violence is not of my preference..." the clocked figure pushed the other two with amazing strength, causing the bronze kobold to helplessly stumble out of the arena.
The gargoyle flew at the last second, and got ready for a counter attack. However, the one whom Neuro called Stinky was faster; he grabbed the gray gargoyle's tail and pulled it hard enough to force the gargoyle to touch the ground outside of the designated fighting circle. The announcer declared him the winner and having defeated two opponents, Stinky gained the right to participate in the third round.
Each master could bring two pets and though Godai had been eliminated, Nera still had Yako whom she could sent out to round two and with some luck, she might gain access to the third and final round. Neuro had Stinky's participation in the finals secured and it was time to send out Yukari to face the second event of the day.
The crowd was moved to a different area of the grassy fields outside the city, often used to set up carnivals and circus shows, as well as bonfires and other outdoor activities that brought a large gathering of people. There was enough room to build a maze, filled with cameras so that the audience could see what was happening inside on a big screen.
The participants would enter the maze one by one and were required to navigate the labyrinth and find a way to get through a series of locked doors. Any methods would be fine, picking the locks or breaking down the doors, however, breaking down a wall was not allowed. The maze had no fully open paths, one would have to run through it and find the right series of doors to get to the other side. It was a race against time with only the fastest few qualifying.
"This will be easy!" Yukari cheered as she stood on the starting line. She was enjoying the show very much and even more so now that it was her turn to be a part of it. The signal to begin sounded off and she rushed into the maze, following her instincts as a guide to the structure. While the audience and the masters could watch, the other pets had been sent away to another circus tent, where they could not see the maze so as to not have any extra advantages.
Suspiciously, Yukari was able to find the right way through the maze with ease, picking one lock after another like a professional thief. She made it to the end, jumping and cheering. Her time was quite good and very likely to get her to the next round. Most likely, the other competitors would run through the maze knocking down doors, which would be set up again for the next contestant to repeat the action, few of the pet creatures present actually had a detectable IQ level.
Many of the large beings, ogres, orcs, goblins, kobolds, gargoyles and a variety of others, in their rush to get through the maze quickly, ran into walls past the doors, breaking them down and becoming disqualified. Others ran through the entire maze, going in circles, breaking down doors one by one as they came to them, then finding doors that had already been broken down, realizing they were back to where they had been before. They lacked the intellect to figure out the maze and though the average human was more intelligent than those creatures, Neuro found it suspicious that Yukari could get through the maze with such ease and even more so that she could pick locks as if it was second nature.
When Yako's turn came, her face revealed concentration and hunger. She was full of determination like Neuro had never seen before. She rushed into the maze, taking all the right turns with perfection, which amazed the crowds. She had a bit of a struggle with some of the locks, but fought her way through, picking them or even breaking them. She couldn't get the last door to open and stubbornly ran into it until she knocked it down and made it to the end of the maze in good time.
The explanation to Yako's performance in the maze was no secret. Neuro had no doubts that though faint, she could somehow perceive the scent of food slipping under the doors of the maze and followed it to the end, nearly ripping off Nera's hand when she snatched away the hotdog she was using to secretly guide Yako though the maze. The judges either didn't understand the extent of he hotdog's influence in the trek through the labyrinth or didn't care.
Along with the strongest mythological creatures, Yako, Yukari and the unknown man nicknamed Stinky, had advanced to the final round of the show. It was the moment of truth, the last competition was about to be revealed and a winner would be chosen.
xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox
Mystery 55: Short Circuit
Yako kept looking towards a large sunflower yellow circus tent on the other side of the grassy fields. She had been watching it from the corner of her eyes the entire time. Occasionally, she would start walking towards it as if in a trance, but Nera stopped her. Eventually, the tent was opened, its yellow walls parting like curtains. There were hotdogs, a lot of hotdogs. The final round was announced to be an eating contest and Yako began to jump with joy.
Yukari, without losing a single ounce of her constant cheer, announced, "we're doomed to lose against the mighty Yako."
"This is the one thing in which the dishrag will always claim victory," Neuro agreed, he looked towards his sister, who was doing a victory sign with her claw. "I told you, Yako is mine so if she wins, it will be my victory."
"As far as this show is concerned, I entered her so I will win and be awarded the magic bottle!" Nera argued.
"There's no way you could have gotten this far without stealing my resources. I was the one who trained Yako!" Neuro retorted.
"Who cares, there's nothing in the rules about stealing someone else's pet, so I will still be declared the winner!" Nera insisted.
Neuro decided it was time to end this. Even if it was because of some twisted loop hole, he would not allow Nera to claim any form of victory over him. "This competition is here by cancelled."
"You can't cancel the," Nera stopped, she had an odd feeling in her feathers, then she saw it...
The one Neuro had called Stinky removed the black hooded coat he was wearing. "This is something I borrowed from a friend. There are three sets of 777 special tools, good, evil and neutral. This is the neutral cloak, which can hide even my scent that you're so allergic to."
Neuro sneezed and Nera wailed, "no!" The humans still thought it was all part of the crazy show, but those from Neuro's world were shocked to find an angel had infiltrated their show.
"Time to use one of my own tools, this is one of the 777 tools of good." Though he didn't have all 777 tools of good in his possession, Angelus did have a few useful ones.
Before the angel could go on, Neuro interrupted. "That won't be needed, I'll end this with one of my evil tools," both of them got ready to use their tools at the same time and there was a huge explosion.
Hotdogs rained down on the panicked crowds as they made their escape to a different place on the surface of the Earth or under it. Yako wailed, "no!" in agony over the waste of all those delicious hotdogs.
In the middle of the chaos stood Neuro and Angelus, looking quite charred, smoke coming out of Neuro's mouth every time he sneezed. That was not how it was supposed to be, the good and evil tools short circuited, being used on such close proximity.
xoxox xox xoxox
Neuro, Yako, Godai, Nera, Yukari and Angelus, who was wearing the borrowed hooded coat again for Neuro and Nera's convenience, sat in the living room of Yako's home watching the news.
"Good thing humans are so stupid, they didn't link any of us to this event and didn't realize there was something from a different world going on," Neuro commented as the news report ended.
"We are lucky they assumed it was a bomb and did not discover us. It would have been troublesome if people learned of other planes of existence and the power they hold. The human race is not quite ready for such knowledge yet, at least not the full extent of it," Angelus voiced.
Nera pouted, "you're such a sore loser Neuro, I was so close... Oh well, it's been fun but I must be going home now, I have things to do and places to be in our world. Don't worry, I won't wake our parents; that human of yours is amusing in her own way, she's not so bad as a sister-in-law." Nera got off the couch and headed to the door, "till we meet again."
"Nera!" Yako rushed over, "thank you for visiting, have a safe trip and come visit again soon!"
Nera blinked, "you really are a strange one. I suppose you fit my gluttonous odd ball brother." Nera left.
After a moment with only the quiet murmurs of the TV to fill the sound waves, Angelus spoke. "It was a pity that the magic bottle was broken by the explosion, but over all, I believe everything turned out well."
"Magic bottles are rare, it might be a while before I have a chance to get another one," Neuro glared, "I blame this on you!"
Yukari cheerfully walked over to the panicked Yako, who was quite stressed over the fact that Neuro was destroying her apartment chasing Angelus around with an evil mallet. "Cheer up Yako; I'll get you some new furniture!"
"You've already given me too many things," Yako knew it would be impossible to stop the war until the apartment was looking like a disaster zone and she also knew Yukari would keep giving her presents even if she tried to stop her.
Godai backed away towards the door, "I think it's time I get going..."
"Okay, see you tomorrow at the office," Yako replied solemnly, she would have a busy day as a detective and would come home to the remainders of a hurricane, because there was no way she could finish fixing this mess tonight or tomorrow morning.
"How about we have a girls' night out? It'll be fun and you can take a break from the chaos. How about it? Just the two of us doing something relaxing," Yukari suggested.
Yako imagined that Yukari would drag her off to a spa or something like that, though maybe she would end up being taken to a club. Either way, Yako would prefer something else, "can we go to a buffet?"
"Of course we can!" Yukari agreed.
Yako's face brightened, she pitied the loss of today's hotdogs, but there was no use in regretting it forever. There were other foods in the world waiting for her to eat them. "Count me in!"
xoxox xox xoxox
That night, determined to have some time to relax, despite Neuro protests, Yako went out with Yukari. Neuro swore she would regret it, which made Yako feel uneasy, thinking he would follow her and ruin her meal. Neuro had been insistent on starting a new investigation that apparently couldn't wait until the next morning, something about a jewel thief turned murderer. Yet in the end, Yako got away and Yukari picked her up, driving off into the city.
"Why so gloomy?" Yukari inquired as she drove through the city streets, heading towards a buffet restaurant, one of the few that had not banned Yako.
"I feel bad about leaving when Neuro wanted to start a new investigation, I know what it's like to be hungry," Yako frowned at her own perceived cruelty.
"Don't worry, he'll be fine," Yukari assured, "maybe we can find some food for him, you mentioned before that he eats mysteries, right? There is this one mystery I need to solve and I thought you could figure it out."
To be Continued
Disclaimer, I don't own Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro. Yako's magical girl style transformation in Mystery 52 is a reference to Sailor Moon. In Mystery 53 'Stinky' made a reference to Kingdom Hearts. The magic bottle is a reference to Legend of Zelda; this item is found on many of the games.
Mystery 50: Finally
"Wake up slave..."
"Hmm... cake... yum... Neuro..."
"Slave!"
Yako woke up suddenly, jumping out of her pleasant dream, and found a pair of glowing green eyes staring into hers. "Neuro, you're back to normal!" She hugged him then took a closer look at the silly sailor outfit, which had somehow stretched along with his body. She laughed before she could hold back, but stopped herself as soon as she could. "I'm glad you're back to normal."
"A grumpy old geezer, am I?" Neuro reminded Yako of what was said when he was little, revealing that he did keep his memories of that time. "I may not be a child of three hundred, unaware of how the worlds outside of his own work, but seven thousand is still young."
Instead of worrying about her possible impending doom, Yako became curious, "seven thousand? Really? I thought maybe your species aged differently so you might be a thousand or two years old, but seven thousand?"
"When you go over your first thousand it won't matter much anymore," Neuro pinched Yako's cheeks and pulled them left and right.
She tried to pry his hands off her face, "humans don't live that long."
"You'll live for as long as I decide, it's an order from your master. Besides, you're my property forever, remember, Puzzle? You've caused so much trouble and I've been too merciful with you."
"But you're normal, that means you came to terms with it, I mean accepted it, you, I... um... well..." Yako felt her face turn scarlet, not only because of the implications of Neuro being back to normal, meaning he did love her and somehow came to terms with it pushing aside any denial he might have held on to, but also because of his proximity, laying on top of her.
"You'll have to be punished for all the trouble you caused and I thought of a way..."
xoxox xox xoxox
Yako woke up for the second time that day. She had dozed off, feeling exhausted after... Her face turned bright red as she looked to her side to find Neuro staring at her, green eyes glowing mischievously. For a second she had thought it was all a dream. Strangely enough, nothing hurt, she thought she might be in pain for a while, she was sure Neuro scratched her and bit her, among other things, but upon checking her body, Yako found she had no wounds or scars.
"Such an inconvenience, all the marks went away," Neuro traced her face with his finger, which was not a claw, all the way down her neck and chest. "I suppose I forgot to tell you that if we mate I share my energy with you and that heals and rejuvenates your pathetic form. You'll return to whatever age is the human equivalent to mine in the same state of health I'm in."
Yako blushed deeper, if that was even possible. "Then we really will be together for a long time..." she smiled.
xoxox xox xoxox
Three days later, on the roof of the building where the detective office was located, Godai enjoyed a cold beer in the middle of the afternoon. Akane was perched on his shoulder, after he had insisted that she should also take advantage of Neuro's absence and relax. "It looks like today is another calm day, Akane. I don't know where those two have gone, but it sure is quiet around here. Maybe they went on a romantic get away together or something like that."
"Slave number two!" The door that led to the stairs was thrown open and there stood Neuro, "why are you up here slacking off and encouraging Akane to participate in your ungrateful ways?"
"You're back!" Godai startled, he jumped to his feet and hurried back to the office, mostly curious to know what the sudden absence had been about.
At the office, Yako was cleaning up, there were some drawings on the walls that she herself had made when she was turned into a child and no one had bothered to finish cleaning, though she had started on several occasions, only to be interrupted for various reasons. "Good afternoon Godai and Akane!" Yako greeted cheerfully.
"Hi..." Godai curiously looked at Yako; there was something different about her, even if she looked the same. She appeared more radiant and happy than she had been in a long time. Akane signaled, pointing at the deep violet feather Yako wore on her hair clip, which prompted Godai to comment, "nice feather."
Yako turned her attention towards the wall she was cleaning, her face turning red as she muttered, "Neuro gave it to me." After she asked, begged and finally persuaded him to give her a feather. She had always thought they were pretty and she enjoyed convincing Neuro to give it to her.
Deciding that he did not want to know what had happened after all, Godai concluded it was best to drop the subject with a neutral, "that's nice," and leave it at that. Just in case, he quickly escaped a situation that could potentially bring too much information, should Neuro decide that it was an amusing torture, "I'm going out to hand out fliers now!"
xoxox xox xoxox
Later, Godai was still out and Yako was cleaning. She had finished cleaning the doodles off the walls and was now dusting the shelves, a broom leaning against the wall near by. Suddenly, Neuro picked her up, placed her sitting on Troy and put the broom into her hand, held up at an angle. He took the feather duster and pretended to clean the furniture on time for a reporter to barge in to interview the great detective.
"Oh my," the reporter spoke with disapproval; "it looks like it was true what they say about you being terribly rough with your assistant, making him clean the office like that and hitting him with a broom."
Yako noticed how compromising the situation looked; Neuro must have heard the footsteps getting closer and set this up to annoy Yako. "I wasn't-" the broom slipped out of Yako's grasp, bounced off Neuro's head and fell on the floor next to him.
Neuro made a sad face, "please stop hitting me sensei, I promise to try harder and leave the office spotless."
Yako laughed nervously and tried to change the subject before Neuro made things worse. "How may I help you?"
"Poor man..." the reporter shook her head. "Did you say something, detective? Ah, never mind, I'm here to interview you and I'll still do it despite your cruelty to your unfortunate assistant."
xoxox xox xoxox
Shortly after the interview was done, Godai returned, having purposely taken his time handing out fliers. "Looks like I might have found some customers, it's becoming easier. I wrote down their contact information and what they wanted to hire you for here." Lately Godai had really been trying to help out, having become accustomed to his life as slave number two.
Neuro snatched away the paper and pushed Godai out, "good job slave number two, you're not so stupid after all. Out with you now, your duties are completed for today." Neuro closed the door on Godai's face, only to open it again a few seconds later, "take your girlfriend with you," he handed Akane over to Godai and before the yakuza could protest, once again, the door was closed on his face.
"Why did you do that?" Yako observed Neuro curiously as he closed the windows and curtains, then locked and bolted the door. "Neuro?"
"So I can punish you again."
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Mystery 51: Evidence
Yako gently ran her hands through the claw marks on Troy. "If the one who made Troy sees this..." It's not like she expected Neuro to be gentle, but he had to learn to stop breaking furniture.
"You do have good ideas now and then, top slug," Neuro immediately called with the pretence that his desk needing maintenance.
Yako sighed, "I should have kept my big mouth shut."
xoxox xox xoxox
Several hours later at Yako's apartment, she had a good meal and a nice relaxing shower. Neuro had disappeared around the time food consumed her attention as it was consumed by her. She quickly organized her bedroom, picking up her Neuro plushie from the floor where it had been tossed out of the way earlier. She placed it on her desk, she would sleep with it if not for the fact that she feared she would chew it up while dreaming of something delicious, it had turned out cute and she didn't want to ruin it.
While fixing the sheets that had been left tangled up before, she noticed that they were torn to pieces, something that had escaped her attention earlier, as her mind was occupied in other things. She threw away the unfixable shreds of fabric, examining the holes and rips on the mattress with a sigh and resolving for simply turning it over and covering it with thick sheets. She couldn't afford to buy new furniture every time... she blushed, the blood rushing to her face at the thought.
"What are you doing, slave?"
Yako jumped in surprise and looked up at the ceiling; she should have expected Neuro to be there. "I'm trying to fix the bed so I can sleep on it, you tore it apart..."
"Don't say it like it's my fault alone when you share the blame," Neuro grinned mischievously.
"That's not... I didn't!" Yako pouted, it was simply impossible to argue with Neuro and besides, he sort of had a point, in a way. She picked up her tortured pillow, she couldn't use that anymore, "I really liked this pillow; it reminded me of a marshmallow."
"Is that why you bit it?"
"I did not!" Yako paused, she had assumed all the destruction was to be blamed on Neuro; though she did play a certain key role in it she had thought her participation was strictly indirect. What had happened to the pillow? Ah, yes, she remembered it clearly now. "I only bit it because you shoved it in my face and tried to suffocate me with it!" Yako tossed the pillow away and rummaged through her closet for a spare.
"How disappointing, I finally get you to obediently call me master and seconds later you rebel and attack," Neuro hopped down from the ceiling. "You bit me, remember? The pillow incident was in self defense, are you sure you weren't trying to eat me? You bit me at the office too, except I didn't have a pillow to shove at you then," nonetheless he did bang her head against the polished surface of Troy. Yako felt every drop of blood she had in her entire body rush to her face, she couldn't deny Neuro's claims. "You're not a submissive slave at all, your master will have to teach you some respect..."
xoxox xox xoxox
It was a brand new day, the sun was shining, the city was buzzing with activity, and Yako was merrily walking down the street back to the office after having purchased some mid-morning snacks. The office would look empty without Troy until the desk was returned. The furniture designer who made Troy with such care nearly had a heart attack when he saw the state it, or she as he insisted on calling the desk, was in. He took Troy back to his shop for repairs, dramatically crying the whole way.
As expected, Yako got blamed for everything. The furniture designer went as far as saying he pitied Neuro, having to put up with the abusive detective and theorizing the reason he always wore that suit was to hide the multiple bandaged injuries he must have all over his body, including the recent stab wounds, which was what the claw marks on Troy were interpreted to be.
People had theorized about the detective and her assistant being lovers long before they even became a couple. They secretly pitied poor Neuro, though they also admired his courage and endurance, imagining Yako to be a merciless sadist. Embarrassed as she was, Yako had given up on trying to clear up the rumors, denial only made them stronger. Instead she just ignored the odd looks and suspicious whispers, or at least she tried to.
However, Yako could not ignore the strange girl who was leaning close to her and smelling her as she walked down the street. "Excuse me?"
"You're excused," the girl replied, talking another sniff, as if to confirm beyond a doubt that the scent was what she thought it was. Her hair was unusually colored, striped in dark purple-black and blond, her eyes a dull gray, darker in the center, like a pair of black holes. "I'm sure of it; the fact that you're wearing his feather on that silly hair clip of yours is no mere coincidence. I can smell it; it has finally happened, I was expecting it. I knew from the day my brother went off to the human world that he would end up with a human mate. I never did understand his fascination with such weak and hideous creatures, but he is an idiot."
Yako looked at her in puzzlement, "you're taking about Neuro?"
"Who else, he's the only sibling I have, and a useless one at that. When we were little he was always trying to get rid of me, I guess he was mad because I was taller, despite being younger. Sure he grew taller than me eventually, but it drove him insane as a child to be so small, he would snap at anyone who called him little," she had a high pitched mocking laugh. Suddenly, she made a dramatic pause and introduced herself, "I am the one and only Nera Nogami! Now unworthy sister-in-law, make yourself useful and take me to see my stupid brother."
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Mystery 52: Visitors
The door to the detective office was noisily thrown open, startling Godai, who peeked from behind the newspaper, "a client?"
"Are you my brother's pet? Honestly, Neuro has such bad taste," Nera grabbed Godai's head with her clawed hand and dragged him out, returning her hand to a human appearance afterwards. "Shoo, ugly one, shoo, I must try to make a passable sister-in-law out of this even uglier creature." Before Godai could protest, the door was closed on his face.
"It seems Neuro went out somewhere," Yako observed, it was a fine time he picked to disappear. "Do you know where he went Akane?"
"Stop talking to the corpse and pay attention," Nera insisted, looking at Yako with disapproval, yet at the same time a certain inexplicable fondness. "Before my brother left our world, he collected 777 special tools and took most of them with him. However, he left this with me, claiming that he had no use for it. He also poked fun at me saying I really needed it, but it's clear his mate is the one that needs it the most." Nera held up a tube of lipstick, "evil makeup," she handed it to Yako.
"You want me to wear this? Doesn't it have some kind of crazy side effect?" Yako wasn't too trusting of any of the evil tools, though some of them actually did what they were supposed to do without consequences, but those were rare.
"Unfortunately no," Nera's sincere disappointment made Yako believe there really was no danger involved. "Now put it on and say 'bird demon make-up'. Say it or I'll have to force you to."
Yako laughed nervously. When she wanted some 'me time' Neuro was always there, popping out of a dark corner, sneaking up behind her, hanging from the ceiling, or making an equally unexpected, yet somehow predictable, entrance. Now that she needed him there, he was gone, off to a place unknown to Yako. "Okay..." Yako gulped and removed the tube's cap, twisting the end to push up the blood red lipstick bar. She looked at Nera, the shades of gray in her black hole eyes swirled with impatience. "Here goes..." Yako took a deep breath, "bird demon make-up!" Putting on the lipstick and shouting such a silly phrase made her feel like one of those magical girls on TV. Shining swirls of color surrounded her as she blinked in surprise and spun around, taking a new form.
The door was thrown open again and Neuro entered the office. "Sister, what an unexpected surprise and you've even brought a friend."
Nera didn't see or hear Neuro, she was staring at Yako's new form in surprise and pointing at her; then suddenly she wailed, "it's not fair," and cried uncontrollably.
Yako felt very odd. She touched her head to find that it was much bigger than it used to be, and very long. She held her hands in front of her face and saw clawed wings with a golden ring around each claw finger. She was covered in light pink feathers and was wearing the silliest hot pink outfit, a little too tight for her liking, with a flowing white sash around her waist. She noted that she had a feathery pink tail, and her feet were a bird's claws matching the claws in her hands and scratching the floor where she stood. She examined her large beak again, multiple large fangs sticking out from it.
Neuro was looking at her closely, "Yako?" He took a good look and perceived in her familiar scent, "it is you; you're really the top slug now!" He laughed at her distress.
"Mirror!" Yako rushed to her desk, which was next to the empty space where Troy would go when it, or she, was returned. She bent down to look at the open drawer's contents and stabbed her beak into the surface of the desk, causing the desk to be broken into two halves, the miraculously undamaged drawer falling to the floor between them. Not quite used to her large head, Yako turned it over to the side as she bent over to pick up the mirror between her clawed fingers, causing it to shatter.
"That's seven years of bad luck, clumsy worm," Neuro went over to Akane's desk, borrowing her mirror, the one Yako would always hold up for Akane to see herself after she had been brushed. "Take a look." Yako approached, but Neuro extended his arm, holding her back so she wouldn't peck the mirror and break it, since her head was a lot longer now and she was not used to it.
"It was the evil make-up! How do I change back? Is taking it off enough?" Yako lifted her claw wing hand to wipe off the lipstick, but Neuro stopped her.
"Leave it on for a while longer," he insisted.
Yako's worry faded, her guess about how to change back must have been right. If she could return to normal without consequences then this didn't seem so bad. "Just for a little while."
As Nera kept complaining about how unfair the world was and crying dramatically for reasons still unknown, Neuro took some time to point and laugh at his sister. Yako attempted to console her sister-in-law, only to be pushed away by both Nera, who didn't want her pity, and Neuro, who didn't think Nera deserved any compassion.
Thus Yako went over to the refrigerator she now kept in the office, since she spent a lot more time there as a fulltime detective, and started going through her stash of emergency snacks. She took an entire cake and put it easily inside her large beak, she had never eaten a cake of that size in a single bite before. She found it to be a pleasant experience and continued stuffing her face
Yako was enjoying the food when suddenly Neuro pulled her away from the refrigerator in alarm and wiped the lipstick off her beak, ripping his sleeve on her fangs in the process. Yako changed back to normal, exactly as she was before and looked into Neuro's serious eyes. "I forbid you from disguising yourself as one of my species ever again. With a stomach like yours, it's too dangerous to allow you to have a bigger mouth."
Yako pouted, "but I was enjoying it!"
"Absolutely not!" Neuro took away the evil make-up and put it in his pocket. "Nera, stop crying, it's not fair that only Yako gets to make you cry. I flew out to get a surprise to upset you, but I can't make you cry if you're already crying!"
Nera stopped crying and sniffled indignantly. "I can't believe this, evil make-up only changes certain aspects of people, but the basics remain, her eye and hair colors for example were the same. As for the rest, it is as it would have been if she had been born of our kind and I just can't believe it; such an enormous beak for such a worthless creature and with huge fangs too!"
"Ah yes, you grew up pretty quickly, but stopped relatively early so you started as the biggest and ended up as the smallest," Neuro morphed his head to his true form and stuck out his tongue at Nera.
"Yako's fangs would have been bigger than yours!" Nera argued.
"Please get along you two!" Yako pleaded.
"Yeah, Neuro, be nice to me because I'll be staying with you for a while," Nera smiled mischievously, her jealousy of Yako's large beak was forgotten in an instant at the pleasant thought of tormenting her brother.
"How nice, I'm sure we can find some room for you, even if we have other visitors staying over too," Neuro sneezed as Angelus and Yukari entered the office on cue.
"Hi!" Yukari cheerfully exclaimed. "Neuro invited Angie and me to Japan!"
Angelus bowed, "we thank you for your kind invitation Neuro; we will try to be good house guests."
Nera shrieked at the top of her lungs and snatched the mirror away from Neuro, screaming at her reflection and throwing it at Angelus, who fortunately caught it. "I'm allergic to angels!" Unlike Neuro, Nera did not sneeze; instead she became covered in multicolored spots that looked like rainbow chickenpox. "Forget the visit, I'm out of here, I'm going home!" Nera left in a hurry.
"I hope you know that was just an act," Neuro warned Angelus with a sneeze after Nera had left.
"Yes, I understand," Angelus assured.
"But I do have my own house here in Japan so Angie and I can stay for a visit after all!" Yukari cheered, "we're going to have so much fun!"
xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox
Mystery 53: Sibling Rivalry
When Troy was returned to the office, Yako wasn't there, she was late, very late, and Neuro didn't like it. He might have to turn her into a chair for a while, or use his new favorite method of punishment, though she didn't seem to be particularly distressed by it. He would think of something to do, as soon as Yako came through that door, Neuro was certain his sadistic inspiration would kick in the second he saw her face. Yet time passed and Yako did not arrive.
Akane searched the internet for mysteries quietly and Godai was out promoting the office. There was suddenly a knock on the door and Neuro could feel his allergy starting. "You don't have to knock, Angie darling, just open it," Yukari opened the door, entering the office followed by Angelus, who brought forth a sneezing fit from Neuro.
"Please forgive me for the inconvenience," Angelus apologized.
Before Neuro could recover from his sneezes, Yukari spoke again, "it's not your fault Angie." Then she looked at Neuro and held up a flier, "look at this!"
Neuro examined the flier with moderate curiosity. It was an advertisement for a pet show, which would feature three main events, though the flier did not specify what the events would be. It mentioned that each contestant could enter up to two pets, each one participating in the elimination rounds, the first two events, with the top contestants making it to the final round where the winner would be decided. "Are you going to enter the feather duster as your pet? Did you come here to borrow slave number one as your second pet?"
"That might not be too far from the truth," Yukari grinned, making a pause to allow the information to sink in, occupying herself in twisting her long blond hair between her fingers, brown eyes shining in anticipation of the amusement the situation may bring her.
Neuro sneezed, then came to a realization, "it's a clandestine pet show and the feather duster was given the mission to stop it if there are humans involved since enslaving humans has been declared illegal."
"Correct, unless they are enslaved of their own free will, which rarely happens, but is not impossible, even if it may sound like a contradiction. I was sent to investigate and stop the event if there are humans being held captive or if humans come too close to discovering the truth of the competition, that no one is wearing a costume. Other than that, the show will be ignored if it doesn't cause too much trouble, we have no express laws about the capture of creatures not from the surface of the Earth," Angelus explained.
"Where's Yako?" Yukari asked, "I thought we might all go watch the show together, Angie is technically working, but maybe he won't have to interfere so we can all enjoy the show. Besides, even if he has to go to work, it will all be done behind the scenes so the human audience doesn't stop thinking of it as more than an odd carnival show."
With another sneeze Neuro replied, "you might just be holding the answer to your own question."
xoxox xox xoxox
"Neuro!" Yako ran to him, arms open for a hug, recognizing him immediately despite his appearance as a big purple bird. Then the chain of her collar ran out and she could go no further.
Nera smiled and waved at her brother, holding the other end of the chain, "you don't mind if I borrow your mate for a while, do you? Oh and I have your pet here too." She was in her true form, covered in red feathers, her dull gray eyes even more ominous like black holes that threatened to absorb one's very soul. Her hair was still the same, long with blond and dark purple-black stripes.
Godai was in the same condition as Yako, being held captive in the large circus tent, while the audience waited outside. He had seen a variety of creatures he thought only existed in mythology and with so many strange beings, it was hard to tell which were the masters at times. There were not only birds, but creatures similar to other animals as well.
"Slaves number one and number two, your master is very disappointed that you have gotten yourselves kidnapped so easily," Neuro glared at Nera.
Nera grinned, she had a beak full of sharp pointy teeth, though her fangs didn't stick out and it was still much smaller than Neuro's. "If you take them back now, I'm waking mom and dad and telling them all about you and your human mate!"
"See if I care, tattle tell!" Neuro countered.
"It might make a mess of history..." The warning came from a man in a black hooded coat, his face covered in shadows. He stood next to a human woman.
Nera identified the human as the same woman who was with that angel before, though she didn't feel her feathers getting itchy so the angel couldn't be near by. "Who are you?"
"Nobody..." the man replied.
Nera decided to ignore the unknown man and taunted her brother, "you're just a afraid to lose!"
"That's my property on your team, if they win, I win!" Neuro argued.
"That's not the point!" Nera pouted, "it's all about the master, not the pets and for today, I'm their master. Will you face me in this pet show or will you chicken out?"
An indignant, "hey!" was heard from a chicken creature who found the old phrase offensive, though the chicken was ignored.
"I'll take your challenge with these two humans as my pets," Neuro agreed, "Yukari and Stinky."
Godai began to protest, going on and on about ungrateful parrots, who didn't rescue those who needed to be rescued, until Yako placed a hand on his shoulder and he stopped, giving her room to tell Neuro off, since he expected her to do so. Instead Yako smiled, "if that's the way you want it, then I'll give it my all and I will claim victory for myself!"
"Are you insane?!" Godai protested.
"It's alright Godai; Neuro is here so we're safe. Let's play along; it might be fun, just like a picnic game, only it's not as good without the picnic." Yako only hoped that the competition didn't last too long, she was hungry.
"Then it's settled, you just wait Neuro, I'll finally beat you at something!" Nera declared.
"The only thing you can win is a competition for smallest beak," Neuro mocked.
Nera was fuming, "laugh while you can, but that price is as good as mine. It's a magic bottle; imagine bottling up a mystery to snack on later."
"I like to eat my mysteries right away, but I wouldn't mind keeping that bottle," Neuro thought of the possibilities, if Yako was properly trained he could send her out to bottle up a mystery on her own, while he investigated another, claiming sensei was guiding him over the phone. Then he could get twice as much food.
xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox
Mystery 54: Pet Show
The first event on the show was a battle, when Nera's turn came; she set Godai out to face a huge green goblin. "This isn't fair, I'm not even armed!" The goblin was not only three times as big as Godai, it held a large wooden club. Godai ran in circles around the arena, avoiding the swings of the club. He considered jumping out of the arena and getting himself disqualified, but he feared the consequences of that as well.
Exhausted and panicked, Godai tripped over his own feet and fell. The goblin, who was running after him, clumsily tripped over Godai, flailing its arms and tossing the club into the air as it fell with half its huge body outside of the circular arena, the club landing on its head. Godai rolled out of the way, escaping being crushed by the goblin's heavy legs. He was sore around the ribs where the goblin had tripped on him, but otherwise unharmed.
Each participant of the first round had to defeat two opponents in battle, reducing the number of participants considerably. Godai was not so lucky in his next fight. The massive black and white orc chased him right out of the arena, though it stupidly continued running after Godai, getting disqualified as well.
"You lost!" Nera yelled at Godai, who was still running for his life with the all brawn and no brains orc chasing after him, causing a commotion among the other participants, though the human witnesses laughed, thinking it was all part of the show.
In his haste, Godai found himself in the path of the goblin he had defeated before by sheer clumsy luck and the beast was angry. Godai jumped out of the way as the goblin raised the large club made out of a tree and brought it down harshly as the orc rammed right into the goblin and the two beasts knocked each other out, Godai emerging out of the ordeal unharmed. "That's it, I'm not playing anymore," his fear for Nera was lost to indignation and the courage that came as the aftermath of survival. He walked over to where Neuro was waiting and glared, blaming him for all that was wrong in the world, "I hate you." Then he sat down at the sidelines.
"Really slave number two, what are you so upset about?" Neuro innocently inquired and Godai decided not to dignify him with an answer.
Neuro didn't have time to further annoy Godai, because it was his turn to send out one of his pets to do battle. "Go Stinky, make sure you win against both your opponents or else."
The unknown man in black went into the arena, but his opponents fought dirty, sending out both the kobold and gargoyle at once, instead of one by one as it should be. The judges reasoned that, since it was required to defeat two opponents before advancing, as long as that condition was met, it didn't matter if it was done separately or at the same time, they weren't too concerned with the minor details of the rules anyway.
The kobold and gargoyle glared at each other, as if deciding that the only worthy opponent was each other. They nodded with the silent agreement of getting rid of the creature in black, which was small compared to them, then focus on fighting each other. Thus they pounded away, kicking, punching and clawing, but strangely enough, they couldn't even rip the black fabric, let alone wound him. "I would much rather not hurt you two, violence is not of my preference..." the clocked figure pushed the other two with amazing strength, causing the bronze kobold to helplessly stumble out of the arena.
The gargoyle flew at the last second, and got ready for a counter attack. However, the one whom Neuro called Stinky was faster; he grabbed the gray gargoyle's tail and pulled it hard enough to force the gargoyle to touch the ground outside of the designated fighting circle. The announcer declared him the winner and having defeated two opponents, Stinky gained the right to participate in the third round.
Each master could bring two pets and though Godai had been eliminated, Nera still had Yako whom she could sent out to round two and with some luck, she might gain access to the third and final round. Neuro had Stinky's participation in the finals secured and it was time to send out Yukari to face the second event of the day.
The crowd was moved to a different area of the grassy fields outside the city, often used to set up carnivals and circus shows, as well as bonfires and other outdoor activities that brought a large gathering of people. There was enough room to build a maze, filled with cameras so that the audience could see what was happening inside on a big screen.
The participants would enter the maze one by one and were required to navigate the labyrinth and find a way to get through a series of locked doors. Any methods would be fine, picking the locks or breaking down the doors, however, breaking down a wall was not allowed. The maze had no fully open paths, one would have to run through it and find the right series of doors to get to the other side. It was a race against time with only the fastest few qualifying.
"This will be easy!" Yukari cheered as she stood on the starting line. She was enjoying the show very much and even more so now that it was her turn to be a part of it. The signal to begin sounded off and she rushed into the maze, following her instincts as a guide to the structure. While the audience and the masters could watch, the other pets had been sent away to another circus tent, where they could not see the maze so as to not have any extra advantages.
Suspiciously, Yukari was able to find the right way through the maze with ease, picking one lock after another like a professional thief. She made it to the end, jumping and cheering. Her time was quite good and very likely to get her to the next round. Most likely, the other competitors would run through the maze knocking down doors, which would be set up again for the next contestant to repeat the action, few of the pet creatures present actually had a detectable IQ level.
Many of the large beings, ogres, orcs, goblins, kobolds, gargoyles and a variety of others, in their rush to get through the maze quickly, ran into walls past the doors, breaking them down and becoming disqualified. Others ran through the entire maze, going in circles, breaking down doors one by one as they came to them, then finding doors that had already been broken down, realizing they were back to where they had been before. They lacked the intellect to figure out the maze and though the average human was more intelligent than those creatures, Neuro found it suspicious that Yukari could get through the maze with such ease and even more so that she could pick locks as if it was second nature.
When Yako's turn came, her face revealed concentration and hunger. She was full of determination like Neuro had never seen before. She rushed into the maze, taking all the right turns with perfection, which amazed the crowds. She had a bit of a struggle with some of the locks, but fought her way through, picking them or even breaking them. She couldn't get the last door to open and stubbornly ran into it until she knocked it down and made it to the end of the maze in good time.
The explanation to Yako's performance in the maze was no secret. Neuro had no doubts that though faint, she could somehow perceive the scent of food slipping under the doors of the maze and followed it to the end, nearly ripping off Nera's hand when she snatched away the hotdog she was using to secretly guide Yako though the maze. The judges either didn't understand the extent of he hotdog's influence in the trek through the labyrinth or didn't care.
Along with the strongest mythological creatures, Yako, Yukari and the unknown man nicknamed Stinky, had advanced to the final round of the show. It was the moment of truth, the last competition was about to be revealed and a winner would be chosen.
xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox
Mystery 55: Short Circuit
Yako kept looking towards a large sunflower yellow circus tent on the other side of the grassy fields. She had been watching it from the corner of her eyes the entire time. Occasionally, she would start walking towards it as if in a trance, but Nera stopped her. Eventually, the tent was opened, its yellow walls parting like curtains. There were hotdogs, a lot of hotdogs. The final round was announced to be an eating contest and Yako began to jump with joy.
Yukari, without losing a single ounce of her constant cheer, announced, "we're doomed to lose against the mighty Yako."
"This is the one thing in which the dishrag will always claim victory," Neuro agreed, he looked towards his sister, who was doing a victory sign with her claw. "I told you, Yako is mine so if she wins, it will be my victory."
"As far as this show is concerned, I entered her so I will win and be awarded the magic bottle!" Nera argued.
"There's no way you could have gotten this far without stealing my resources. I was the one who trained Yako!" Neuro retorted.
"Who cares, there's nothing in the rules about stealing someone else's pet, so I will still be declared the winner!" Nera insisted.
Neuro decided it was time to end this. Even if it was because of some twisted loop hole, he would not allow Nera to claim any form of victory over him. "This competition is here by cancelled."
"You can't cancel the," Nera stopped, she had an odd feeling in her feathers, then she saw it...
The one Neuro had called Stinky removed the black hooded coat he was wearing. "This is something I borrowed from a friend. There are three sets of 777 special tools, good, evil and neutral. This is the neutral cloak, which can hide even my scent that you're so allergic to."
Neuro sneezed and Nera wailed, "no!" The humans still thought it was all part of the crazy show, but those from Neuro's world were shocked to find an angel had infiltrated their show.
"Time to use one of my own tools, this is one of the 777 tools of good." Though he didn't have all 777 tools of good in his possession, Angelus did have a few useful ones.
Before the angel could go on, Neuro interrupted. "That won't be needed, I'll end this with one of my evil tools," both of them got ready to use their tools at the same time and there was a huge explosion.
Hotdogs rained down on the panicked crowds as they made their escape to a different place on the surface of the Earth or under it. Yako wailed, "no!" in agony over the waste of all those delicious hotdogs.
In the middle of the chaos stood Neuro and Angelus, looking quite charred, smoke coming out of Neuro's mouth every time he sneezed. That was not how it was supposed to be, the good and evil tools short circuited, being used on such close proximity.
xoxox xox xoxox
Neuro, Yako, Godai, Nera, Yukari and Angelus, who was wearing the borrowed hooded coat again for Neuro and Nera's convenience, sat in the living room of Yako's home watching the news.
"Good thing humans are so stupid, they didn't link any of us to this event and didn't realize there was something from a different world going on," Neuro commented as the news report ended.
"We are lucky they assumed it was a bomb and did not discover us. It would have been troublesome if people learned of other planes of existence and the power they hold. The human race is not quite ready for such knowledge yet, at least not the full extent of it," Angelus voiced.
Nera pouted, "you're such a sore loser Neuro, I was so close... Oh well, it's been fun but I must be going home now, I have things to do and places to be in our world. Don't worry, I won't wake our parents; that human of yours is amusing in her own way, she's not so bad as a sister-in-law." Nera got off the couch and headed to the door, "till we meet again."
"Nera!" Yako rushed over, "thank you for visiting, have a safe trip and come visit again soon!"
Nera blinked, "you really are a strange one. I suppose you fit my gluttonous odd ball brother." Nera left.
After a moment with only the quiet murmurs of the TV to fill the sound waves, Angelus spoke. "It was a pity that the magic bottle was broken by the explosion, but over all, I believe everything turned out well."
"Magic bottles are rare, it might be a while before I have a chance to get another one," Neuro glared, "I blame this on you!"
Yukari cheerfully walked over to the panicked Yako, who was quite stressed over the fact that Neuro was destroying her apartment chasing Angelus around with an evil mallet. "Cheer up Yako; I'll get you some new furniture!"
"You've already given me too many things," Yako knew it would be impossible to stop the war until the apartment was looking like a disaster zone and she also knew Yukari would keep giving her presents even if she tried to stop her.
Godai backed away towards the door, "I think it's time I get going..."
"Okay, see you tomorrow at the office," Yako replied solemnly, she would have a busy day as a detective and would come home to the remainders of a hurricane, because there was no way she could finish fixing this mess tonight or tomorrow morning.
"How about we have a girls' night out? It'll be fun and you can take a break from the chaos. How about it? Just the two of us doing something relaxing," Yukari suggested.
Yako imagined that Yukari would drag her off to a spa or something like that, though maybe she would end up being taken to a club. Either way, Yako would prefer something else, "can we go to a buffet?"
"Of course we can!" Yukari agreed.
Yako's face brightened, she pitied the loss of today's hotdogs, but there was no use in regretting it forever. There were other foods in the world waiting for her to eat them. "Count me in!"
xoxox xox xoxox
That night, determined to have some time to relax, despite Neuro protests, Yako went out with Yukari. Neuro swore she would regret it, which made Yako feel uneasy, thinking he would follow her and ruin her meal. Neuro had been insistent on starting a new investigation that apparently couldn't wait until the next morning, something about a jewel thief turned murderer. Yet in the end, Yako got away and Yukari picked her up, driving off into the city.
"Why so gloomy?" Yukari inquired as she drove through the city streets, heading towards a buffet restaurant, one of the few that had not banned Yako.
"I feel bad about leaving when Neuro wanted to start a new investigation, I know what it's like to be hungry," Yako frowned at her own perceived cruelty.
"Don't worry, he'll be fine," Yukari assured, "maybe we can find some food for him, you mentioned before that he eats mysteries, right? There is this one mystery I need to solve and I thought you could figure it out."
To be Continued
Disclaimer, I don't own Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro. Yako's magical girl style transformation in Mystery 52 is a reference to Sailor Moon. In Mystery 53 'Stinky' made a reference to Kingdom Hearts. The magic bottle is a reference to Legend of Zelda; this item is found on many of the games.